This noon my mom and my younger sister drive us to Sultan Taha Airport. Our flight is at 3.10 pm with Mandala Airlines.I already book this flight month before. I did that because its pretty close with the end of school holidays. I’m just afraid that we’re not being able to get one if we just “go-show” to the airport.My mom is still sick I could see that on her face, but she just don’t want me to worry. We went inside and check-in our ticket and luggage. My backpack weight is 8 kg’s, while Maria’s is 10 Kg’s. We mostly bring noodle cups and cereals also chocolates. I heard its kind of hard to find “halal” food in Thailand. So better to prepare than starve !I ask if we could choose our seats, because Maria want to sit near the window, on the wing side (any). They give us the seat ! (Thank you Mandala !)After boarding, we say good bye to my mom, its better for her to go back home than staying outside the airport. We take pictures at the airport, before and after boarding. But most of people stare at us before were check-in because they were rarely too see girls with huge backpack I guess…As usual, the flight being delayed until finally at 4 pm we were take off !We know this is going to ruin the schedule that I’ve made, but I told Maria to relax. As far as I know there’s no problem to check in at Betel box late night, as long as if you inform the front desk about your upcoming days, and what time that you should be there.After nearly 45 minutes flight we arrive at Hang Nadim. As we’re on the way to get our luggage we see the ferry ticket stands. Its for Penguin and for Wave Master ferry price is the same, but as Mr Indra from Backpacker blog, he said Penguin ferry is better/cleaner than Wave Master (and he’s right that most people go by the Wave Master), so we get Penguin ticket and the ferry leave at 5.41 pm.We bought two way ticket as per suggestion from my friends at backpacker groups. It is cheaper to buy at Batam rather than at Singapore. The counter girl ask wether we want to buy with rupiahs or Singapore dollars, we have less sing dollars so we bought with rupiahs.I think its okay to buy the ferry ticket at the airport, and because I don’t think they had booking service on internet. The ticket is for 1 year. So if we go this August ‘07 to Singapore, the ferry ticket will valid until September next year (’08) to go back to Batam centre.We got our backpack finally and rush to the taxi counter to get taxi to Batam Centre. The taxi fee is flat Rp 70,000,- per taxi (not per person) to Batam Centre from Hang Nadim.The taxi driver is from Jambi (he said so). We talk a lot, while he is driving in high speed like a group of cops trying to get us on the back.. I mean he drive really fast that not once I hear his tire screaming. But we’re okay because we’re also on the rush to get the ferry. The trip took 15 minutes to Batam Centre. We’re lucky because there’s no traffic jam or anything on our way.When we get there… we’re little bit confuse. But I remember that Maria had to pay fiscal first. And I also remember that someone on the groups ever mentioned about the fiscal stand near the entrance door. We see that at once. Its on the left side of the door.Maria have to pay Rp 500,000,- for fiscal. And for me it’s free since I use Jambi passport.After paying fiscal we’re looking for penguin counter to check-in. We finally find the counter still on the base floor, on the back side of the floor, its not that hard to find. We check-in, and we didn’t check our backpack, as they said we have to carry that our own (??). Oh they also ask for our passport, and then print out the departure and leaving cards for the immigration, all we need to do is just give our passport and ticket (nice!). The girl from Penguin said that we could go with Penguin Ferry at 6.20 pm. As we already kind of late for the one at 5.41pm. The ferry were leaving every 30-40 minutes, so we don’t have to worry that there would be no ferry.So we’re carry our backpack and see the Batam Centre, taking pictures near the entrance of Batam Mega Mall (our regrets not able to get there !!!!uughhh!). And then went to toilet at 2nd floor to clean up a bit, and relax our shoulder ! hehehe…Finally we could get in the immigration and x-rays our things 20 minutes before our ferry depart. Its on the 2nd floor of Batam centre. Theres a waiting room for the ferries. The Penguin ferry gate is # 3. The waiting room is standard. Have long plastic seat, and tv. Some other passenger already there to wait, its not much.. maybe only less than 50 of them. We also take pictures here, and send messages to my mom, saying that were leaving to Singapore.We could see the ferry is coming. We boarding, and give the leaving card to the guy that rip our ticket too. The boat is quite comfy. The passenger not even half capacity of the boat. It’s also clean, and the air conditioner is pretty cold that we had to use our hat and jacket to avoid cold. You could sit where ever you want, I think there’s no rules about that, so once again we take seat near the window. The window is big enough to see out side. Its not really dark that time to see out side. There’s still burst of red colour on sky. It was 6.20 pm so its not really dark already. The trip took one hour to Harbour front.First we took pictures, and they we went sleep, because we’re too excited and get tired already I guess. The wave is not that big so everything is okay and so smooth.When I could see Sentosa island lights, I woke Maria up to see the lights, it was pretty.We’re docking at 8.30 pm Singapore time. Singapore is 1 hour ahead Sumatra.We have to prepare for our arrival card for immigration and yes, our passport. We need to get our passport stamped here to get in Singapore. The custom officer usually ask questions like: do you ever been to Singapore? how long will you stay in Singapore? where do you stay? What’s your purpose in Singapore ?. We have to be ready with the answers offcourse.After get a stamp for the passport we go to the nearest MRT (Mass Rapid Train). Maria bought a new MRT card and I have to top up for S$ 10. I have my MRT card from my last travel. But I don’t know for sure wether it could expired or not.From Harbour front we went to Paya Lebar Station. That’s the nearest station to the Betel Box where we stay during at Singapore.We finally check-in at Betel Box nearly 9 pm. Its still the same clean, comfort air inside the hostel.We got the 2nd floor shared room. The room is quite full. There’s only 3 girls stay there, me, Maria and other Korea/Taiwanese girl. Other are boys. There’s 24 single bed there.

After picking our spot, and clean up our self, we went out to go to the merlion.Its already 10.30 pm Singapore time, so we think its better if we take a cab. There's flat fare after 9 pm. Its save our time, and worthy (in our case).Finally we arrive at merlion. Maria seemed so happy, its her first, i feel the same way too. To think that "woah !! here i am at Merlion, and i'm not even in Indonesia anymore !" it does feel great !I never seen merlion at night. Its more beautifull at night with lamps. There's few couples sit there and enjoy the night. We're just busy taking pictures. We're leaving at 11 pm. Planning to go to the Orchad road. Because as far as i know there's sometimes on certain days you could do night shopping, and there's discount for that.But.. heheheh.. we're lost.And its Sunday night, the town is quite empty at almost midnight.So we're just walk..walk..and walk. Its safe there. You don't need to worry as long as you got your passport with you i guess.We finally pick another cab to get to Betel box. We're beyond tired.Its 12.30 am when we get to Betel box and get some sleep. We're planning to hit the town early tomorrow morning.

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heyy... u are from jambi??i'll be heading there in October for lebaran..I'm from singapore, so just wondering if you could help me out with the flights cos i was told that they dun have daily flights to travel there...let me know.. whatsabd.blogspot.com

yes i am originally from jambi. Hows your lebaran ? sorry i just open up my mail and see theres a comment on my blog.From singapore, theres no direct flight to jambi.You could do Sing-Jkt-Jambi.Theres some day flight from jakarta to jambi. Jambi only small town, so the airport will be closed at 6 pm. Unless theres some delayed flight from jakarta.Other alternative is you could go from Sing-Batam-Jambi.

@ NoorzainYes, there are songket for men ofcourse :) people in Jambi use it for wedding ceremony. Just same like Malay culture anywhere.I will send you some link to show my songket hunt while i was preparing for a wedding ceremony here.. some songket for men and most for couples. I will send the link to your mail.